HHS funds state opioid surveillance program

Faced with a nationwide opioid epidemic, the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday announced more than $4 million in funding to 12 states to support improved data collection and analysis around opioid misuse and overdose.

Prescription opioid misuse has emerged as an urgent public health crisis, with drug poisoning deaths—including both prescription and illicit opioids—quadrupling between 1999 and 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.